What Have the Mulberries Been Teaching Me This Year?

 

It's mulberry season here, and when my daughter and I noticed the fruit on a tree nearby starting to ripen before we left for a short camping trip, we wondered if we would miss prime picking time this year.

So, soon after we returned, we went on a walk to see if there were still any good berries.

There were! 

We picked a container full that day and, the next day, between rain clouds, picked another.

On of us go laughably "stained" as we did.

Since then, there have been plenty more berries ripening, and, during walks, we've picked a handful to nibble here and there.

As we have done so, we've noticed that, oddly this year, not all of the seemingly ripe berries are good.

While some pack a familiar punch of delightful tastiness, others seem flavorless, and one or two have even caused us to spit them out with an "Ew! THAT as a bad one!"

Strange, huh?

Same tree as in past years, but more inconsistency than ever.

Same branch, same outward appearance in the color and size of berries, yet each one offering different levels of flavor.

Luckily, there have been plenty of tasty ones, and we've found that when we mix the fruit together to make chia jam and other seasonal foraged fruit goodies, the not-so-flavorful berries have been masked by yummy ones, becoming good on average.

And that's where my mulberry lesson came in:

I was thinking about today how like life those berries can be.

Our Lord is so generous in granting us moments of life to enjoy freely, yet some bits of life take time to come into their own.

As they do, some moments are rich and delightful. Others not so much.

Those delightful and not-so-hot moments often come close together.

If we dwell on the the moments that aren't savor-worthy, life can become pretty hard to swallow. But, if we take all life's moments together, on the whole, life is quite rich and fruitful.

I don't know about you, but I admittedly sometimes tend to dwell on feeling hurt, numb, bothered, challenged, beaten, or, fill-in-the-unsavory-term...

Then, praise God, I typically realize what I am doing, and the Spirit moves me to choose to place my focus on gratitude, hope, encouragement, beauty... all the glorious welcome gifts that come along.

Of course, doing so does not erase the bitterness or distaste of some moments in life, but it sure does change the overall flavor, making life so much more palatable - and even delight-inducing.

This year, the mulberries have been reminding me that every moment leaves its mark...

And, although not not every moment is a good one and the marks can look pretty bad...

... it's all a part of the process of living, and, overall, life remains so praiseworthy.

Thanks be to God for the gift of life (and the free gift of foraged mulberries!)

Adventures in Wild Edibles: Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Dandelion Cookes

The other day, relative cold and dampness had me feeling a bit sluggish.  I longed for afternoon sunshine to burst through the clouds, offering its warming energy, but there was none to be had.  So, I decided to embrace the chill by doing something I refuse to do when it is warm and sunny outside:  heat up the kitchen by baking. 

And not just baking anything.  Rather, I suggested we make Dandelion Cookies!

My daughter and youngest son were all for it.

My daughter has been keen on wild edibles this spring and was eager to try a new-to-us one.

My youngest son likes to explore in the kitchen with me and claims eating is one of his favorite things to do.  He also enjoys being outside.  So, he was psyched with the idea of making cookies from wild edibles.

Thus, outside we went to collect dandelions from our front yard.

Then, in we came, where the kids found ingredients set on the table for a recipe I put together myself, since I could not find any gluten-free, casein-free dandelion cookie recipes online that called for ingredients I already had on hand.

Once inside, we washed the dandelions and pulled the yellow flower bits out of the bitter greens.

We mixed these with the rest of the ingredients...

...popped them into the oven, and baked them for 10-15 minutes.

The result? 

A light lunch:  Cookies that my youngest boy loved, my daughter and other son liked, and that Daddy and I liked, too. (And, yes, cookies can be lunch in our home at times when paired with fruit.)

Each cookie had visible dandelion pieces in every bite, but not a strong dandelion flavor.  (So, we might try the cookies again with even more dandelion flowers next time.)

Here's the recipe we created want to try it:

Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Dandelion-Almond-Coconut Cookies

1/2 cup dandelion flower heads (or more, next time)
3 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup almond flour
3 cups shredded coconut

Preheat oven and baking stone to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wash flower heads and separate the yellow parts our from the green parts, discarding the green portions.

Mix yellow flowers together with eggs, maple syrup and vanilla.

Add in almond flour and coconut.

Mix well.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a baking stone.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, checking for golden brownness at 10 minutes.

Cook for a few minutes and enjoy!

You might also like recipes from one of our prior adventures with wild edibles.
 

We'd love to hear about your favorite wild edibles and how you prepare them.  Please do share recipes and notes with us in a comment!

Our New Recipes: No-Cook Wild Clover-Chia Seed Pudding and Strawberry-Chia Seed Pudding, Too

What's for dessert?

Wild edibles in self-created recipes if you come picnic with us.

At least that is what was for dessert on our lawn tonight.  (And, yes, the wild clover one tasted much better than it looked!)

Earlier in the day, a friend had posted a link to some wonderfully healthy and delicious-looking white clover pudding.  We did not have the ingredients for that pudding at home, but we did have a desire to explore what we might create with the white and red clover growing in our yard.  So, we decided to make our own recipe.

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The children gathered clover blooms, which I sorted and "de-petaled", pulling petals that had not dried and browned yet and placing them in a measuring cup.

By the time we  had but one-quarter of a cupful of petals, the children tired of picking them, so my daughter and I went inside see what we could make.

We have been on a chia-seed kick lately, so we decided to experiment chia seeds, honey, clover petals, and coconut milk to make our own pudding.

My daughter thought the texture of the pudding might be best if we ground the petals first in our Magic Bullet instead of using them whole, so we did just that.

Oops!  The pretty white and purple with a hint of green petals turned into green pulp.

 

Not to be chagrined, we added coconut milk and honey to the pulp and blended again.

Then, we added the chia seeds and, noticing our concoction was no longer green, but was still hardly pretty, we added a few petals to the top.  Then - oops, again - we forgot to shake the jar vigorously in order to mix the chia seeds in properly.  So, we ended up having our pudding set with some quite thick parts and some more fluid ones. 

That did not deter us, though.  We simply stirred it all together before serving.  Then, five out of the six people in our home enjoyed our clover bloom chia seed pudding despite its strange hue and less-than-perfect texture.

Five out of six people also enjoyed our other creation: strawberry-chia seed pudding.

Because we had a cup of coconut milk left in a can after making our wild clover pudding, and because we have a fridge bursting with fresh strawberries, we decided to make a strawberry pudding, too.

To make it, we washed and sliced a cup of strawberries.
 

Then, we added coconut milk and honey,before we blended it all together.

We poured the mixture into a jar and topped it off chia seeds.

We, then, capped the lid, shook it vigorously, and popped it in the fridge for a a few hours.

By dinner time, it was a delightful pudding that all of us (but our one odd-child-out who does not like strawberries) enjoyed it!

I would definitely recommend trying either our wild clover chia seed pudding and out strawberry-chia seed one before clover and strawberry season has passed.  Not every concoction we experiment with turns out to be a recipe worth sharing, but we think today's wild edible exploration is worth passing on.

Both clover and strawberries have many health benefits, as do wild honey and chia seeds.  So, the puddings are ones you can enjoy without guilt.  

For your ease, the ingredients and directions we used to make each pudding are listed below.

Wild Clover Chia Seed Pudding

• 1/4 cup white and/or purple clover bloom petals  (simply pull/snip petals from the flower head, discarding brown or dry ones)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons raw, local honey
• 1/4 cup chia seeds (We prefer white ones for aesthetic purposes, but black taste just as good.)

Mix clover petals, coconut milk, and honey together.  Place in a jar, and add chia seeds.  Cover jar and shake vigorously.  Refrigerate several hours to thicken.

Enjoy as is or with whipped coconut cream and fruit toppings.

Strawberry-Chia Seed Pudding

• 1cup strawberries
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons raw, local honey
• 1/2 cup chia seeds (We prefer white ones for aesthetic purposes, but black taste just as good.)

Wash, slice, and blend strawberries.  Add one cup of coconut milk and three tablespoons of honey. Blend again.  Then pour into a jar.  Add 1/2 cup chia seeds, cover, and shake vigorously.  Refrigerate several hours to thicken.

Enjoy as is or with whipped coconut cream and fruit toppings.

We've love to hear how you like (and adapt!) our pudding recipes.  We'd also welcome your wild (and spring!) edible recipes.  We are novices with wild edibles, but enjoying learning and experimenting with them.